Jacopo Rusticucci, Waterfall
Already I was where I heard the rumbling fall
Of water running down to the next circle,
Like the sound that a humming beehive makes,
When three shades broke away together,
5 Racing, out of the squad that went on past us
Under the rain of grating punishment.
They ran toward us, each of them shouting,
"Stop! You — by the clothes you wear — seem
To be like someone from our rotten city."
10 Ah me, what old and recent wounds I saw
Seared into their bodies by those flames!
Just to remember it still gives me pain.
Their shouts caught the attention of my guide.
He turned his face toward me: "Now wait,"
15 He said; "we must be courteous to them.
"And were it not for the hot darting fire
Which the nature of this place rains down on them,
I’d say haste suits you better than it does them."
While we stood still, they once again began
20 Their ancient dirge, and when they came to us
The three of them together formed a wheel,
As stripped and oiled wrestlers often do,
First studying their grip and their advantage
Before they come to blows and holds between them,
25 So, wheeling, each one directed his face
Toward me, so that, in constant motion,
His neck kept turning opposite his feet.
"If the debasement of this unsteady sand
And our bare and burnt-out faces," one began,
30 "Makes you feel contempt for our pleas and us,
"May fame of ours induce the soul in you
To tell us who you are who in such safety
Can drag your feet, still living, throughout hell.
"He in whose footsteps you see me tread,
35 Although he turns about here, skinned and naked,
Was of a higher rank than you may think:
"He was the grandson of the good Gualdrada;
His name was Guido Guerra — in his life
Much he achieved by counsel and his sword.
40 "The other who thrashes the sand behind me
Is Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, whose voice
In the world above ought to have won favor.
"And I who am placed with them in this torment
Was Jacopo Rusticucci, and surely
45 My hell-cat wife — more than anyone — ruined me!"
If I had found a shelter from the flames,
I would have hurled myself below with them,
And I think my teacher would have allowed it.
But since I would have been baked and toasted,
50 Fear conquered my initially kind impulse
Which first made me so eager to embrace them.
Then I began, "Not disdain, but distress
For your condition seized me — so deeply that
It will only leave me slowly, and not soon —
55 "At the instant my lord spoke to me the words
Which led me then to realize that such men,
Worthy as you are, were coming here.
"I am of your city, and at all times
I have spoken and heard others speak
60 Of your achievements and your honored names.
"I quit the gall and go for the sweet apples
Promised to me by my truthful leader,
But first I must pass down into the center."
"So may your soul long lead on your body,"
65 Once more he answered me, "and may your fame,
After you have passed on, shed its light,
"Tell us if courtesy and valor still
Dwell in our city as they did in our day
Or have they been entirely driven out?
70 "For Guglielmo Borsiere, who just joined
Us in our grief and goes with our comrades,
With his reports has caused us deep distress."
"The new arrivals and the instant profits
Have given rise to such pride and unrestraint
75 In you, Florence, that you already weep."
These words I cried out with my face raised high,
And the three, who took it for my answer,
Gazed at each other as though they heard the truth.
"If at other times you find it so easy
80 To please other people," all three replied,
"Happy you to speak so fluently!
"Should you escape, then, from these sunless regions
And return to view once more the splendid stars,
When it shall gladden you to say, ‘I was there,’
85 "Be sure to tell the people about us."
At that they broke out of their wheeling circle,
And, in fleeing, their legs resembled wings.
An "Amen" would take less time to pronounce
Than it took for the three of them to vanish:
90 And so my master thought it well to leave.
I followed him, and we hadn’t walked on far
Before the sound of water was so near
